Multiple iPods, one computer. How best to manage them?
My future brother-in-law now has, thanks to Christmas, two new iPods where he had none before. One is a 512 meg Shuffle and the other is a 20 gig 4th generation HP iPod, and he needs to manage them both from the same computer (currently an HP PC running Windows.) Since the two are radically different in terms of capacities and capabilities, having iTunes set to treat them both the same seemed to me to be a non-starter last night when I was helping him to get them set up. The solution I arrived at was this:
1. Set up two playlists, one for each iPod
2. Set the iPod preferences in iTunes so that the iPods are manually managed.
3. When he plugs in the Shuffle, go back into Edit: Preferences: iPod and change the settings there so that it’s automatically updating from the Shuffle’s playlist. Then update. Then set it back to manual management in the iPod preferences in iTunes.
4. For the 20 gig, same thing except that iTunes is updating from the 20 gig’s playlist.
He’s a professional workout coach and personal trainer, so he really wants to keep both as both are great for different things (the Shuffle for while he’s working out, the 20 gig for while he’s in the car, etc.) but there has to be an easier way to manage this. Has anyone worked out a better way, on either the Mac or the PC (he’s a potential switcher)? If so, let me know in the comments.
Update: Apparently, iTunes is capable of handling multiple iPods automatically. Thanks to MC Brown and Sam Pullara for letting me know about this, it’ll be a big help! Sam even provided a screenshot of this in action: http://homepage.mac.com/spullara/managingtwoipods.png
Martin MC Brown on December 26th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
You dont need to ‘manage’ anything – iTunes automatically supports multiple iPods. You can even have multiple iPods plugged in at the same time. iTunes manages a completely set of preferences, and, if you’ve configured them as such, separately manage the individual play lists that are copied across.
You certainly don’t need to go through the hoops you suggest…
Sam Pullara on December 26th, 2005 at 2:23 pm
I agree with the previous commenter. I manage a 60G iPod and a 4G iPod Nano from the same iTunes. One is set to copy everything, the Nano is set to copy a small subset. It shows up as a drop down in the options:
http://homepage.mac.com/spullara/managingtwoipods.png
Chris Holland on December 26th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
yeah i have a 4 year-old 10GB firewire iPod, a Shuffle, and as of this Christmas, a new 60GB iPod video. I haven’t plugged them all at the same time though.
Coco on December 27th, 2005 at 10:23 am
Which version of itunes supports the multiple ipods ?
Jon Petrie on January 1st, 2006 at 10:38 pm
i tunes 6 will support 5 ipods hooked up to the computer at once
Jaquie on February 15th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Hi! Thanks to all that have posted and I am a goof it seems, because I am lost. Thanks to Christmas I too have two iPods, ona 30GB and one a 60GB both 5th generation I am told. I want to program one for my son and give it to him, but mange it on my work PC (yes, i do guage what the little one downloads and watches :o)). Anyway, again, I amlost as it seems i have a hard time managing even one. First, does it have to update every song every time they are plugged in??? I mean, the other day I went in and ‘unclicked’ everything except my new items that I had just added through iTunes, and sure enough, when i unhooked it, it only had the new stuff :o). So, in a nutshell, if someone could help, i’d be very grateful and will pass on the ‘niceness’ as I am just a nice person :o). Good karma for all involved – lol! Okay, i would ike to have some of the same songs and videos on the two, but mostly different stuff. And, I am wondering if it needs to update the stuff each time. Thanks!!!! Signed: CLueless.
cheryl on March 18th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
my son and i both have ipod nanos and my daughter has one on our other computer.How can me and my son have both ipods on the same coumputer??
Rich Trouton on March 18th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Cheryl,
If you’re using Mac OS X, set up different user accounts for you and your son. That way, your iPod syncs up with the music collection on your account, and your son’s will sync up with his.
Hiedi on March 28th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
ok so i just got a new iPod and my son has already had an iPod, when I downloaded it they put all of his songs onto mine and basically deleted his account… how do i create a new account??
Tia on April 23rd, 2006 at 12:11 pm
the computer will not read the other i-pod. it just days that there is no i-pod connected
blah on June 4th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
please help…. me and my sister both have ipods… and only one computer, we each would like to organize our playlists differently but cannot figured out a way to do this… some one pleeeeeaseee help!
My Fiance will kill me if I screw this up… on June 26th, 2006 at 7:27 am
My fiance and I have recently decided to use her PC to sync both of our Ipods. My question has to do with the very beginning steps of this process. When I plug my Ipod into her PC for the first time it reads it as new hardware. Do I follow the windows XP prompts to set-up this “new hardware” or is there something else I should do instead. The bottomline is: I don’t want to overwrite my fiance’s Ipod info on XP because she will see to my demise. Can someone please help me sync my ipod while not disrupting my fiance’s?
Chris Holland on June 26th, 2006 at 10:55 am
don’t plug your Fiance’s iPod into your PC unless you’re ready and willing for everything on your PC to overwrite what’s on her iPod. In your specific instance, it would likely erase everything that’s on it.
While you can have multiple iPods sync’ed on one PC or Mac, what it means is, you are able to have your PC’s library mirrored on multiple iPods. If an iPod was tied to antoher PC’s library, you can’t *merge* anything.
In other words, the process of synchronizing your music library is very-much a one-way process, it’s PC –> iPod. It’s not really synchronizing … well, depending on the definition of “synchronizing”. heh.
My Fiance will kill me if I screw this up… on June 26th, 2006 at 11:12 am
I removed the Autosync option on the Itunes software already but the XP (system software itself) New hardware wizard is my main concern at the moment. If I were to follow the prompts on the XP system’s “add new hardware wizard”, would my fiance’s ipod be overwritten in regards to the drivers?
Essentially, her Ipod has already been installed on the pc in question so if I were to plug my ipod into said pc (this is before I even open Itunes and concern myself with it’s recognition of the new ipod) and then install my ipod as well; would the original ipod be overwritten and no longer be recognised by XP?
I may be confusing this matter since I have no pc expertise at all. I really don’t want to cause more of a headache for my fiance when she is ready to go back in and update her ipod.
I mainly want to get a clear answer to the windows end of the process. Since I know that any disturbances with the drivers can cause havoc in the future.
Thank you for the quick response to my issue. I hope I can get further help.
Servaes on July 2nd, 2006 at 7:09 am
On iTunes 6 supporting multiple ipods (and the screenshot by Sam Pullara): does anyone know this works in Windows too? I can’t find anything about multiple ipods the help. (am deciding whether to buy a shuffle next to my 30gb)
thanks!
Olivia on July 8th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
My sister and I both have iPods. I got mine first so the library has all my music on it. I guess the library is the main source of music. So I put all her songs she wanted into the library and then put it into a playlist titled “Hannah’s iPod” and then deleted the songs from my library. Obviously it deleted the songs from her iPod library and then her iPod when she plugged it in.
WE DEFINATLY DO NOT WANT ANY OF THE SAME MUSIC ON OUR IPODS. HOW CAN WE BOTH HAVE OUR OWN PLAYLIST OR LIBRARY WITHOUT ANYTHING BEING DELETED?
Important note: My dad’s computer is not able to make new user names or accounts. So there is only one.
Rich Trouton on July 8th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Sorry to say it, Olivia, but whatever’s keeping your father’s computer from making new user accounts really needs to be fixed before you and your sister will be able to do what you’re asking to do.
Jessica on July 17th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
I am having the same problem as Olivia. My brother and I each have an ipod and we do not want the same songs on them. If anyone knows how to make that happen please tell me!
Rich Trouton on July 17th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Jessica,
If you and your brother have a Mac running OS X, set up different accounts for the two of you. He loads his music in his account, you load yours in yours, and then just make sure you’re logged into your own account when you want to sync your iPod.
dhollinger on July 19th, 2006 at 6:43 am
MULTIPLE IPODS – everyone says that you can manage your ipods in itunes. every time i get a new one (i’m at number 4 now) i set it up the way is says to… and then itunes won’t recognize the old one. it seems to me it only recognizes one, the new one. how can i change the settings to handle all of them for different things. one for books, one for workout music, one for listening, one for “what was i thinking – there has to be a better devise?!”
THANKS TO ANYONE WHO CAN HELP!
yat on July 24th, 2006 at 10:35 am
what you need to do is(assuming you have windows) go to file then create new playlist, then create all the playlists you want for your own use,then create all the playlist that the other person who uses the ipod wants
than go into each playlist and add all the songs that eacj of you prefer
then go to edit> prefrances >choose the ipod tab at the top >then the music tab underneath then when the relevent ipod is plugged in and choose >aotomaticlly update selected playlists only, the depending on whos ipod it is tick the relevent playlists and
you have to then plug in the next ipod and do the same , this time selecting the remaining playlists
and viola………………….
when you add songs to each playlist, each ipod will only sync with the playlists which it has been told to sync with…..
useful anyone???
Emily on August 5th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
sorry , but my sister and i both have iPods. I just got mine yesterday, and it’s a shuffle. She has a mini, and no way does she have 120 songs on it. AND i dont have a Mac running OS X. So that is no help. What should we do to get both on the same computer?
Rich on August 12th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Hi Emily,
The post above yours explains how to do what you want.
Key thing is to turn off “automatic updating” for the smaller iPod. Then create a playlist for the small iPod, and use the instructions posted by Yat to set it up so it updates.
jess on August 13th, 2006 at 10:24 am
My itunes didnt automatically recognise 2 different ipods (nano and 5g). So I set up 2 user accounts so now there are 2 itunes librarys – one for each windows user account. Easy Peasy
Russ on August 15th, 2006 at 8:31 am
Hi.. Glad I’m not the only technophobe out there.
I have the latest 60g Video Ipod and my girlfriend an old 4g Mini Ipod. Can I update the Itunes on our chared PC with latest SW receievd with new video Ipod and will this version of Itunes work with the (very) old Mini Ipod?? Thanks for your advice.
Leon on August 20th, 2006 at 3:02 am
OK. I can see that having 2 different iPods on one PC (running Win XP) is doable.
Since am an iPod virgin and just want to see how this can be accomplished, is there a specific guide that someone could point me to, so that we can follow something step-by step.
Basically, the 2 iPods have different libraries of music.
Would it be possible to synch or move the music from the smaller capacity iPod to the larger one, so the larger one acts as the backup “device”.
Its going to take me longer to delete files/apps in my PC to create space for BOTH iPod libraries.
Appreciate any help/suggestion or forward to a link that can do so.
Thanks!
Sarah P on August 23rd, 2006 at 1:10 pm
can someone please help me as there is a lot of fighting going on at the moment here!
I firstly have an ipod mini, my brother just got a brand nw ipod. We have figued out how to deal with updating each others ipod. BUT -I not cannot listen to iTunes properly anymore. It’s only his music that is selected, so I have to manually click all my songs to play. And I can’t use shuffle as there’s only his selected. We have a PC (not mac) we have tried setting up two user accounts, but it hasn’t made a difference. PLEASE please someone help us before i kill him because it’s all working in his favour, even though I actually had the ipod first?!
We need TWo separate libraries!!
Lee on September 4th, 2006 at 3:07 am
I successfully had a 4 gig and a 1 gig nano running on itunes, untill the auto update tried to update the software on the 4 gig, it stopped half way through and “froze”. in the end I had to disconnect the ipod as it was doing nothing (the do not disconnect symbol would not go)!I lost all the songs that I had loaded onto it! Now itunes will not see the 4 gig at all, it only sees the original 1 gig!
I have tried running the 2 ipods on 4 different PC’s and it seems to corrupt the itunes on all the PC’s
it done something that stopped itunes seeing the 1 gig, on all PC’s exept the new windows XP which ‘luckily’ still sees it!! help!! I need the 4 gig as the 1 gig is not big enough.
Elaine on September 19th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Hi…I am thick. Now I have told you that I feel better. I have a 60GB ipod. My daughter has a new 80GB ipod. I have loads of songs etc. on my (Windows XP) PC. Could someone very simply tell me (I am 60 – so make allowances)how I can use the same pc for my daughter – we dont mind sharing the exact same music as we have enough space. Do I have to put all my music from my LIBRARY into PLAYLISTS, or is there a way of my daughters ipod just getting what I have displayed on LIBRARY. Thanks so much – Elaine
Noreen on September 21st, 2006 at 6:02 am
Hi Guys,
I have an old 3rd or 4th gen ipod(it’s in black and white). my sister just bought a new ipod nano, so i set up a new user account for her. she started putting songs onto it and everything was working fine.
i then logged into my user account and my itunes program had disappeared. i tried to download itunes, but it won’t let me, saying it is already on the computer.
I’m pretty sure my music is still on the computer, but can someone please tell me how to get the itunes programe onto my account.
Please help or i’ll cry, boo hoo hoo
Noreen
Alison on September 24th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
This is all very worrying reading this.
We have a windows pc (XP) and my daughter has an iPod mini and itunes.
We have separate user names/id’s BUT when she downloaded iTunes it appeared, complete with all her music on my side of the pc as well as hers.
Today I ordered a 30 GB video iPod for myself and was looking for information on having 2 separate libraries and am now very worried we wont even be able to run 2 iPods never mind 2 libraries.
bob on September 26th, 2006 at 6:40 am
forget the hassel. its really not that hard. I have a 60gig vid and a 30g vid. just take off automatic updating, install your 2 ipods and just click and drag whatever music, mpeg4 files from folders in your computer into the ipod icon on the left of itunes.give it a few seconds 2 load especially if you don’t have a USB2. This will not be very organized but it gets the job done quite well. It also allows you to delete the files off your computer that take up space while you have it still on your ipod. There wore great as hardrives.
Bill on September 28th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
As stated above, it not that hard. I have 4 ipods using the same ITUNES. I have a 30gb vid, my son’s have a 30 & 60gb vids. My wife has a 512mb Shuffle she uses to work out to.
History- I got my 30gb last Xmas, setup itunes and added music, (downloaded from Itunes, copied from cd, and some MP3s), then 5gb of pics I have taken over the past several years, download podcast(audio & video), and video(music and movies). Next my wife’s bday, she has got the Shuffle, I started Itunes, plugged the Shuffle in, ITunes comes up with a new devise, and I add a new name, update the software, then turn off the auto-sync for the Shuffle. When I add music, I set up a new playlist or just add it to her Shuffle(drag & drop). For my son’s, (both for their Bdays), I just added and auto-sync, (They have the space). Last week was my oldest son’s bday, and he wanted an Ipod. Because the new 80gb are out he was able to get the 60 for the price of the 30. Anyway, my youngest wanted a move, “Gone in 60 Seconds” , so I updated Itunes software, the ipod software, download 1 movie(1.5gb took over 1 hour), 6 songs and added my oldest son’s new 60gb, (which I updated his software and loaded over 8gb of music, pics, video, podcasts) all at the same time. It took several hours, but I was downloading, updating software(itunes & ipods), and loading (autosync) two different Ipods all at the same time. I was impressed with how easy it was.
Right now the above is using my user account on Windows XP, I have request from the boys for them to have their own Itunes(setup on the same XP computer, different user accounts), but for now this is working.
I hope this is helpful.
sue on September 29th, 2006 at 6:44 am
I just got a 30 gig ipod and my sister has the same one. she has her own comuter but we plugged hers into my itunes to play a song and when i took hers off and plugged mine back into my computer, somehow her whole ipod got put onto mine and all of my music that was there is gone. It even says “Emily’s ipod” (my sisters) when i plug mine in instead of “sue’s ipod”. i obviously did something wrong because they have switched identities. The thing is none of her music plays on my ipod. every song has an exclamation point inside a circle when its plugged into itunes. does anyone know how i can counter act what ive done? is there a way to get my ipods music back without having to maually erase and put everything back on? thanks.
Meeka on October 2nd, 2006 at 11:07 am
hello,
me and my daughter both have i-pods.
i have the i-pod nano,and my daughter has the i-pod mini. my daughters i-pod was set up on our old computer which crashed. now we have a new computer and my i-pod is already set up on it but, when we try to set hers up it said something about an account being on another computer and if we wanted to have her account on this computer it would move the account to here. but, when we decided to press yes all of her songs got deleted and it started putting my songs on it. please help.
Jim Thomas on October 3rd, 2006 at 12:45 pm
I’m about to jump into this particular cesspool myself. I have a 40 gB ipod that I’ve had for almost 3 years. It’s full, and I have albums that won’t fit on it. I figured that they’ve updated the ipods enough (in terms of storage capacity, battery life, etc) that I’ve ordered a new 80 gig one.
I don’t want to update with playlists, I want each ipod to have its own separate library. I’m going to put all my music on an external hard drive. I will manage the new ipod off of “my” user account, and manage the old one off of the admin account. After all, all the library does (as I understand it) is “point” to the music location. Two ipods can use the same music location, with each one having different albums in their libraries. I’ll just have to make sure that when I update each one, I am logged into the appropriate user account. It won’t be that inconvenient, it’s not like I will update each one every day. The music I listen to most often will be on the 80 gig one, with the 40 gig one for music I listen too less often and podcasts.
Wish me luck….
Topher on October 3rd, 2006 at 4:18 pm
My brother and I both have 2 G iPod nanos operating on the same computer. It works fine for putting songs into the seperate iPods, but we want seperate libraries as well so that they’re not all stored together in one big melting pot. I’m not talking about seperate playlists for each of our songs, I mean whole seperate accounts and not a superficial change to one account to make it appear that it’s been solved, as is Apple’s solution to most of these problems. Sorry for the intense description of the problem I want solved, but it’s been bugging me for a while and googling the problem just brings up people’s hatred for itunes and its lack of problem-solving.
Shawn on November 5th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Here is my detailed step by step tutorial for an easy way to manage multiple iPods on one computer with a common music library. This is based on Windows/PC iTunes.
a) At the top menu for iTunes, select “View” and then “View Options” and click on the “Comment” box and click “OK”. Make sure that you can see the “Comment” field in your iTunes library layout. If you can’t see the “Comment” field, then you need to remove some of the other information being viewed by going back and un-checking something from the “View Options” menu.
b) Sort your full/complete iTunes library by artist, or how ever you want to base your song selection. Sorting by artist is probably the most obvious method.
c) Highlight all of the songs to be targeted for a particular iPod (e.g. Shawn’s Ipod). Use the shift and/or control button to allow you to grap multiple songs at once.
d) When you have the desired set of songs highlighted, right click on your mouse and select “Get Info”. Click OK to bypass the warning box.
e) In the provided “Comment” field, enter that particular iPod’s Name (e.g. “Shawn”) and click “OK”. You may have to repeat c, d, and e several times, depending on how many songs you feel comfortable grabbing at one time. MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THE INFORMATION IN THE “COMMENT” BOX AND NOT ANY OTHER BOX SINCE CHANGES WILL BE APPLIED TO ALL SELECTED SONGS”
f) After you have put the appropriate identifiers for this particular iPod in the “Comment” field of your library, go to the main iTunes menu at the top of the screen and select “File” and then “New Smart Playlist”
g) Change the first click-down menu field to “Comment”, then leave the word “Contains” in the second field, then put “Shawn” in the last box, and leave the “Live Update” box selected.
h) Now, get the iPod that you are working with and connect it to the PC. When you plug in that iPod, change it to “Manually Update”, and then change it to “Update only selected playlists” (i.e. Shawn)
With this method, you can easily add muliple names in the “Comments” field and create a Smart Playlist for each name. For instance, you can have “Shawn Patty” in the comment field for some songs, and your Smart Play list will bring it in to Shawn’s iPod just by seaching for the name “Shawn”.
helen on August 31st, 2009 at 9:50 am
i’ve had an ipod for 3 yrs and have synced it with 3 computers. I want to update my ipod as i’ve added some new songs onto the 2nd computer i synced with but when i connect my ipod to any computer the computer does not show my ipod up. It seems to have dissapeared from every computer. HELP!!!!
Marissa on September 24th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Hey Shawn,
I Tried doing this because I have two iPods. One for my store’s use and one for my personal use. Your method worked for the first one, but when I went to do my personal iPod I couldnt get it to update to only the song I’ve selected for the the smart playlist. You said change it to “manually update” and then to “update only selected playlists”. I changed it to manually update and now I can’t update only selected playlists! I don’t really know what to do now…. help?
Ian on November 23rd, 2006 at 11:27 pm
Bought a Nano 30 GB and want to transfer all my music from my current Nano onto it. I’m giving my old Nano to my wife. I’ve set up two accounts on my Windows computer. How do I transfer the music to my new Nano and clean off the older one?
justin on November 28th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
my itunes took all of my songs off of my ipod (nano 1GB) and it wont let me put them back on the ipod. how do i put my 200+ songs back on it?
rachel on December 3rd, 2006 at 5:44 am
shawn-
don’t get letter G
rachel on December 3rd, 2006 at 5:49 am
shawn-
my brother has an ipod nano and i’m getting one i like your advice and all but how do u add songs to just MY ipod. do i make different libraries. i just don’t want his songs.
Dave on December 6th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
I found this software that can easily manage several iPods, iTunes libraries and users, it’s for PC.
http://www.copypod.net/ilibs.php
Of course the same can be done manually but why bother…
Gabby on December 10th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Me and my sister have both got ipod nanos i want 2 put all her songs from her itunes library on my i pod (we have the same gr8 taste in music !) but i dont want to wipe all her song off her library does any1 no how 2 do it (we have windows xp) thanx x
john on December 21st, 2006 at 11:46 pm
i bought an ipod and my cousin has itunes on her computer but i want to get some music from her and she is afraid that it will clear her whole library if we try this, may someone please tell me how we can put music on my ipod without clearing her library?
Tom on December 25th, 2006 at 8:24 am
I just got an iPod nano and my sister already has one, how do I get some of her songs but not all of them? and how do i connect my iPod with her account?
Tom on December 25th, 2006 at 8:24 am
I just got an iPod nano and my sister already has one, how do I get some of her songs but not all of them? and how do i connect my iPod with her account?
Katie on December 25th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I got a 2GB ipod nano for christmas and i have a computer at home and i have music i could put on my ipod but i am leaving for college in 5 months and will recieve and new pc, i was wondering if i could take my ipod and use it on muliple computers to download music onto it…
carley on December 25th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
how do you create 2 different accounts on one computer to keep 2 different ipods and the songs separate?
tubino on December 26th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
I get an error message with Sam Pullara’s URL. Anyone else having that problem? Sam, would you please correct?
Thanks.
Bryn on December 27th, 2006 at 12:01 am
Shawn – that’s really good advice mate; really helped my dad and I out. What happened was we both had 20GB iPods – but mine broke so I obviously wanted a new one. I got an 80Gb for Xmas and so did he. What he wanted to do was to have the 80GB with his music on it and his old one just give to my mum with only her music on it…. and with your advice I was able to sort it out for him.
Thanks! =)
kerina on December 28th, 2006 at 8:19 am
i dont know how to put music on my ipod nano 2GB.
can any of you’s help because everytime i do it i cant play them and it doesnt even show that i have copyed them on my ipod ive tryed everting
please help me!!!
stephen on January 3rd, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Hey, im wondering if anyone can help me. I currently have a 20g ipod, and im looking to buy a 30g video ipod basically just to upgrade. I wont be using the 20g anymore, so do i just basically hook up the new ipod to the pc and it will sync up everything that is on there.
Kurt on January 8th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Please help…..I have a 30 gig video ipod and it works great. I also have a new shuffle. When I connect the shuffle to my computer the computer does not recognize it. I can’t get the “shuffle” to show up at all in itunes. However, the other ipod does show up. Any ideas?
Trisha on February 13th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Hey ok so i need help…i just recently bought a ipod nano. and none of the songs on my daughters itunes will transfer to mine. Mine will charge. but i cant get any songs on it. can you help please?
Richard on February 16th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Shawn
I am OK till step h) Now, get the iPod that you are working with and connect it to the PC. When you plug in that iPod, change it to “Manually Update”, and then change it to “Update only selected playlists” (i.e. Shawn)
How do you change the IPOD to ‘Manually Update’ and then ‘Update only selected playl8ist’?
Is that on the IPOD itself or ITunes
Vicki on March 3rd, 2007 at 1:58 am
Hi, and help. Two ipods, one computer, cool playlists. In short my husband has a 30G older Ipod, me an 80G. I love his new music that he loads, he HATEs my girlie “blarrgh” music I load. Is there anyway that we can manage two devices, but multiple playlists, as he doesn;t want to have to save the music into two playlists each time. Happy for info on software or other options….. all cheaper than divorce. Hey and thank for the time spent replying.
Brian on March 4th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Do I have to download ITunes a second time to have two accounts OR when I plug in IPod 2 will it walk me throught it?
Northvetter on March 6th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Hi, I just purchased two ipod nano 4 GB. (Pink/green) One for my daughter and the other one for my wife. Is there anyone who could provide me with the step by step instructions to manage both? Also, when byoijng a song from ipod store, can the song be downloaded to both ipds or do we have to purchase it twice?
Pleeeaaase help.
Thanks.
mel on March 11th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
help…
my daughter and i have our own ipods, whenever we download music from itunes her music gets on my ipod and mine on hers! how can i manage both our ipods on itunes and avoid downloading her music on mine and my music on hers! so frustrating!
thank you!
Grady on March 13th, 2007 at 11:18 am
I just bought an ipod 30g ipod and do not know much about it. My roommate says that when her boyfriend plugged into her itunes with his video ipod it deleted all of her itunes and cleared her ipod. What can be done to fix this so that I can put some songs on my ipod while I am waiting on my PC to come back from service. Furthermore, my little sister already has a nano and she has itunes downloaded on the home computer and I would like to know how I can manage songs on both ipods without deleting anything.
Thanks!
nate on March 25th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
my friend and i both have ipod nanos and use the same credit card how do we use the same itunes account since he made the account before i got the ipod nano
julie on March 25th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
My husband ans i just got two NANO’s. My sister loaded all her music to mine. My husband set his up (a silver NANO and it apprears as silver on the Computer) on our home computer. When i plug my Nano into the computer it shows my PINK NANO but shows it as his device with his device name and a message comes up tht says i can either erase and sync my NANO with his (I do not want to do this) or i can transfer purchases – i do not want to do this. I just want my music on the computer under a device with my name…HELP!!!!! THANKS!
Nat on April 22nd, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Three ipods (2 new shuffle, 1 old 40g), two computers, one external hard drive all files mp3 files (240 G), first time ipod user. Question 1: What’s the easiest way to move the files to the ipods and do not dupplicate the files in my external drive (i.e. mp3 – itunes.) Question 2: Is there any way I can manage the three ipods with both computers back and forward indistinctively? Thanks.
Maylin Brucker on April 23rd, 2007 at 11:37 am
I have a 80 G ipod and I want another 80G ipod to back up my whole library. Is it possible to plug in the second ipod and copy the whole library. Will the first ipod be recognize when plugged in to itunes?
Lexi on May 2nd, 2007 at 8:04 am
My parents computer lost all info, so when I went to reload my i-pod nano on again it says it doesnt recognize my computer! What do I do?
Alicia on May 6th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Ok- I’ve read all the comments and they seem really helpful… but I have a question before I go messing with it all.
Like everyone else here- I have 2 ipods for one computer (windows). I want to know if I’m going to be able to have multiple playlist on the ipod. ascially my Mom is a fitness instructor and is going to want to be able to make new playlist all the time- is this possible since we have her Ipod and my Brother’s ipod on the same itunes?
Please Help!!! - Jen on May 6th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Resently my computer crashed erasing everything I had. I have a 5th gen. ipod with about 3,200+ songs on it. I have windows itunes & I was wondering how I could reload everything that’s on my ipod to itunes without erasing anything on my ipod??
Chey on May 7th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Alirighty now- How do you delete the music off of your ipod nano? Thanks and i hope that someone can help me delete these stupid songs off of my ipod nano!!! lol love, Cheyenne Be sure someone writes me back,i really dont want to listen to kiss and ozzy osbourne for a year!! Bye
help on May 13th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I am concidering buying an ipod. My sister already has an ipod on this computer. Will both ipods work with a recently installed itunes on the same computer?
problems on May 18th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
My dad and I both have iPod nanos. Every time he or I plug our iPods in, all the songs transfer onto the wrong iPod. My songs go on his or his songs go on mine. I don’t understand how to separate our libraries. Someone please help me!
problems on May 18th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Chey, you just have to uncheck the box next to said songs, right click, and delete.
MT on July 6th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
how do you make a new user account?
Miggy on July 15th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
I just did this whole two ipods, one computer thing. I had to create a second user account. I then went into the file where my itunes info was stored, copied it and placed it in a shared music file. Once i went into the new user account, i opened itunes and found the file and imported into the new user account itunes. Once it was all in the library, I plugged in the ipod and sync’d with that itunes. Went back to my original user account and made sure nothing affected my first ipod…all was good. Plus, any itunes store purchased items went with the files and thus were placed in the second ipod. Hope this helps….
Johny J on July 30th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
My problem is I have a 4g, but the library that I have on it is on a old computer that doesn’t work any more. Now I have a new computer, a 30g, and a new library. I want to get the old songs off my 4g and transfer it to my new computer, but it keeps saying that it wants to erase my old playlist and put the new library onto my 4g. I don’t want to do that because they are different song that I don’t have any more. Can somebody please help me? I would appreciate it.
Jason on August 4th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Richard
Shawn’s step h)
it’s in the Tabs
Beside “Summary” Tab the Music Tab
allows you to select update manually and choose the playlist.
lisa on August 20th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I have two iPod accounts in my iTunes folder. How do I delete songs back out?
I’m really hoping someone has a better solution than to put all of my 1700-something songs (AND videos) into a stupid playlist.
Chiah on September 10th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Hi all, this may be obvious, but if you are wanting to run two Ipods off of the one computer (PC), and have decided to take the option of setting up two separate user accounts and running two separate iTunes libraries, do you need to download iTunes twice? Will this wipe my brother’s existing account (which has been on my computer for over a year and is therefore quite large)?
Charles on September 21st, 2007 at 10:07 am
my brother has a 2gb ipod and i just bought my boyfriend a 4gb ipod and we dont know how to manage both ipods on the same itunes?? i made a playlist for my boyfriends and i put only 9 songs on it so then when i added my brothers ipod it had erased all his songs and put the 9 songs that my boyfriend had….how do i put the two ipods on the same itunes?? please HELP ME!!
Dlink1010 on October 25th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
FOR ANYONE WITH 2 IPODS NOT WANTING THE SAME MUSIC: A possible solution is to have both ipods music in the itunes library then create two seperate playlists with the different music and go to preferences in itunes and set up the playlists as the syncing folder for the respective ipod. ask questions for help, i havent done this yes but plan to in the future as my bro has his 40gig ipod and i am getting my new ipod touch and am looking in advance to make sure it is possible to deal with 2 ipods on one itunes. it should be too hard.
Jpod on December 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Apple has a great doc on solving this problem here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300432
Confused and need help on December 26th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
I have an Ipod nano and my sister just got a shuffle we don’t want the same music on our ipods and we only have one computer so we set up an itunes account for her and I already had one. When we got hers set up I looked in her library and she has all my music, how do I get my music out of her library without deleting all of my music in the process? And if I set up two playlists one for each of us will the music be deleted from either of our ipods even if we set it to manual??
susie on January 6th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Hi
I am reading all this messages, everyone with the same prob of the multiple ipod and only one pc – Do people exsist that will come to your home and sort this out for a fee (not a huge one?) Has anyone had any experience with IT support people who do this?
Many thanks
jason on January 31st, 2008 at 12:31 am
i added songs on my ipod using my friends cmputer but now when i put it on my computer it doesnt let me manually delete songs from my itunes?
chris on March 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Okay !!! I’ve made multiple email accounts and now i’ve gone over my limit? I’ve just now gottn all my info back on my lold accounts but before knowing that i’ had exceded the four email accounts i’ve purchased forty songs with a new account today. is there a way to keep those songs or am i screwed?
Fernando Raimundo on May 19th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I have a 60G ipod and it`s full, I want to buy another one and i don`t know how to manage with the new ipod without transfer to the new one the musics i have in the older one, Please explain to me in an easy way because i don`t understand much of this
thanks in advance
Apple laptop battery on June 2nd, 2008 at 1:37 am
Hi all, this may be obvious, but if you are wanting to run two Ipods off of the one computer (PC), and have decided to take the option of setting up two separate user accounts and running two separate iTunes libraries.
M8244 on June 2nd, 2008 at 1:51 am
work well for my two iPod nanos.
Scott on June 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I got a question!! See I am borrowing my friends ipod. He is lending it to me for the summer. He has about 2gigs worth of stuff on it. Well, i want to know if it is possible to add my own songs on it from itunes on my computer?? When I plug it in i get this thing that tells me it can only be synced with one itunes thingy, and it gives me two options, either to erase the previous stuff on the ipod, or “transfer Purchases”. What does the whole “transfer Purchases” mean and do?? Thats my question, please helpp!!
bg2026 on June 16th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Ok, so apparently you cannot have two ipods on a PC at the same time. I have two ipods, an older 20 gig and an early nano. I’ll confess from the start that I don’t know exactly how, but my PC was able to recognize both ipods (not simotaniously, but at separate times), and even more than that, I was able to load friend’s ipods too and give them music/access and play their music on my computer (while connected). And all on the same user account, without managing anything.
I now have an MacBook Pro. I want to connect my second ipod, at a separate time, but it does not seem to be working properly. Itunes recognizes an ipod. BUT, not being the original one I connected, every song/every playlist is grayed out. I cannot highlight anything listed as being on this alt. ipod, let alone play anything or update it.
I have friends with MacBooks who have just taken my ipod, hooked it up, and given me music…Can anyone explain the troubles I’m having now that I have my own MacBook?
Mr.Spore on June 28th, 2008 at 8:01 am
I think the latest itunes has support for multiple ipods.
MacBook MB403LL Battery on July 1st, 2008 at 1:27 am
Apple has a great doc on solving this problem here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300432
http://www.laptopbattery-inc.co.uk/apple-laptop-battery-c-77.html
Trev on August 9th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Hey Shawn,
Great detailed step by step tutorial. But, can you give one for NON-common music library. I would like to plug iPod A into the computer and let it sync for it’s library and updates, etc.. I would like to plug in iPod B to do the same thing, but with it’s own library.
Tori on September 12th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
ikeep trying to plug up my
new ipod touch && it keeps saying
you do not have sufficent privilages
wo install devices on this computer please
contact your site administrator or log out
and log in again as an administrator and try again!!
but i cant get my administrator to do it!!
so what does this mean!?!?
&& when i turn my ipod touch on…
it has a pic. of tha ipod cord && itunes!!
plz help me!!
=P
Mikey. on October 17th, 2008 at 4:02 am
I had faith in Ipod and Itunes at one time. Until I used it. I can’t believe people actually use that software. There’s nothing like plugging in an already fully loaded Ipod with music you’ve been collecting for monthes thinking your friend can give you those songs you just heard on his computer. You all know what happens next. Oh I got those couple Mp3’s but I where’d the other six thousand go? Thanks Itunes! You revolutionized the way I lose music! I haven’t lost music this fast since I lost the whole Ipod. I hope apple got there consumer information off of it before the wiped my library. That software is the only software I am adamantly against. I’ll start buying music off Itunes when they get me back that music. I hate to be completely negative with this post but I think that it is a horrible attempt at restructuring the way people store music when it’s just a way of controlling piracy. I feel that music is a right. To own it. To listen to it. To copy it. To burn it. To steal it if need be. Maybe no one agrees with me but I don’t like knowing that every MP3 you put on that music is linked to an Ipod which is linked to a consumer research company and turned into profits which as an Itunes user I never see benefits of. I’ll never own the “Rights” to my music. It’s music. Nothing more. It’s no ones business what’s on it, how often I use it, and what computer I plugged it into. All the off brand MP3 player’s I’ve used seem to do the same job with Windows explorer. And I don’t have to register them. I’ll never forgive Apple for the music I lost on my Ipod. It’s music I’ll never replace. All in the pursuit of what? The right’s of musicians? It’s there music I lost and I’m sure I’m not the only one who have seen an Ipod update librarys. I’m not trying to change anyones opinion on what they think about apple or Itunes but with a company of such stature I expect much more. I know your all saying all you had to do was uncheck the box in the settings and I know that. Save your breath. I learned that lesson the hard way.
TinuZ on October 28th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I have 2 exactly equal 8GB IPod Nano’s, and want to sync the same library, mainly consisting of podcasts, to both the ipods. Does anyone have a clue how to do this? My pc first recognises the second ipod as new and starts installing drivers etc, but then says that it has been synced on an other pc, wich is true, because i already synced it once at home. The pc where these need managing is at work. So one ipod is synced properly, but itunes wont do the second one…. Any suggestions?
Thanx a lot in advance,
TinuZ
eleanor on November 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
for christmas i am getting a 8gb i pod touch but my sister already has a i pod nano my sis says that you can only have one i tunes libary on one computer but i want my own i tunes libary on the same computer as my sister has hers because i dont want her music on my i pod nd she doesnt want hers on mine so how can i have 2 different i tunes libaries on the same computer please help me plz plz its my first i pod and i really want it. plz reply with an easy answer :0
Tora on November 17th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Shawn–great tutorial!
For those of you with the same problems… read!! Oh, and make sure that you change your settings on the Ipods to MANUALLY UPDATE!! That is the most important.
For XP Users, if its the first time… XP will configure the computer to use on the machine. This does not alter the IPOD, just lets the machine install drivers to communicate with the IPOD. Only when in Itunes will you screw up the content (or if you use your Ipod as a HD and view its contents in a browser window.)
For MAC/XP users like me… planning is essential… if you set you Ipod to be formatted as XP, don’t go and change your libraries to MAC, this will reformat everything!!! If you want to save you Itunes to save to another HD like I do… you need to setup Itunes to read from that directory. (Oh, and every time that it gets updated, you will need to verify its settings to make sure that its still reading from the correct drive… if not, you will get all the exclamation marks.)
For all who ask about taking music off old Ipods… ok, this one is labor intensive… I only have about 3000+ songs and have had to do this a few times :( There is a program that can be bought for less than $20, called “tunes plus”. It can be found in Office Max. (no affiliations!!) It will sincronize your Ipods contents to a PC without going into Itunes. It will also add address and contacts info if you have Outlook, and with some easy reading you can even have horrorscopes, and news updated also. This works to get music off your old Ipod and keep them incase of accidents. (You figure out the stuff about a friends Ipod. Hint) Remember that Itunes was made as to keep consumers BUYING!!! So music is not supposed to be shared with more than certain amounts of Ipods for each library.
About Libraries in Itunes…. please understand that MAC uses central databases to keep everything intact, and syincronized… so, you will only need to have ONE Library for everyone in the house. Creating Multiple users for a computer does work, just need to read on how to set that up. Also, if you want to make the playlists more multiple user friendly… #38- Shawns Tutorial does a very good job… even I hadn’t thought of using the comments for that, and I have been using Ipods, since 2nd gen. If you want to add to your own playlist for your own Ipod, that needs to be mananged manually. Automatic updates are for single Ipod Owners to have no hassles with their libraries.
As for #95 Mikey— Sorry to hear about ther misfortune… it happened to me also whole syncing my Ipod to my new laptop… after it was previoulsy connected to my desktop. XP remembers the equipment that was connected to it… so if you sync it to one PC, the next computer will know it!! Also, make sure that in Itunes, you configure it to save your music as MP3, and not AAC!!! This little issue is a life saver. Itunes automatically changes the names of all the files to a random letter soup… (browse into your ipods hidden files and you will see that you will not be able to find the music your looking for afterwards.) I do not know why the company has done this, but its their propietary thing to keep business… so if you lost your music, or are afraid of losing your music, before updating, or syncronizing, setup and plan!!! It works great, but you need to know the rules of the game.
–I have no affiliation with any company whatsoever… so I hope this hasa helped.
Jim Hall on November 19th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I’m very new to IPod, but I have downloaded a CD that I bought to my IPod. I would like to download the same CD to my wife’s IPod, but her computer is currently being repaired so I want to know if I can do that from my computer to her IPod?
Lily on December 3rd, 2008 at 7:34 am
Use iLibs! this app rocks!!! We have 4 iPods and only one PC at home. Now I have my own iTunes music library just for me!!!!
http://www.copytrans.net/ilibs.php
edhardy on December 13th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
thanks for sharing!
thanks for sharing!ed_hardy
Cal on December 26th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I have an i-Pod Nano and have just bought hubby a shuffle. I am new to this whole thing and very clueless… I cannot even get started with the Shuffle. I thought since I had i-tunes that I did not need to download this software again but perhaps I do???? Nothing is happening when I plug in the shuffle at all. How do I get started with a new i-Pod from the very beginning. Secondly what then? We will probably use the same music but how do we manage 2 i-pods – one is 2GB and the other 4GB??? Help!!!!!!!!!
will_G on January 23rd, 2009 at 3:24 am
I strongly recommend iLibs to manage several iPods separately on the same computer.
I got two kids and a wife, each with an iPod. iLibs is a life saver for any ‘Brady’s bunch’!!
It is available here: http://www.copytrans.net/ilibs.php
Hope that helps!
Teri on February 21st, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Please help!
I have my very own IPOD.. but for christmas my 2 neices got their very own IPOD 1GB.. and they want songs from my itunes.. i plug it in like i do with mine.. BUT they dont even appear on my itunes.. and it doesn’t give me the option to go under file to sync the ipod. Any ideas? i would GREATLY APPRECIATE anyones help!
vinod on June 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Hai this is vinod stay in hyd i have a problem in my computer I have two i pods one is 8GB NANO &another is 120GB classic.How can i manage my itunes with too ipods
Win a Apple iPod Touch (16gb) plus signed… on June 25th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
http://thecelebritycafe.com/contests/katharine_mcphee.html
Win a Apple iPod Touch (16gb) plus signed Katharine McPhee T-Shirt ($300 total value)
2009 is going to be a big year for Katharine McPhee. She’s returning with a new album, new music video
and a tour and
you can be a part of the fun! Win a personalized an Apple iPod Touch and an autographed T-Shirt from Kat!
And when you enter, join Kat’s VIP List and be the first to get exclusive Kat News, Concert Tickets and More!
Prizes
* One Grand Prize Winner will receive:
o Apple iPod Touch (16gb) plus signed T-Shirt ($300 total value)
Marissa on September 24th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Hey Shawn,
I Tried doing this because I have two iPods. One for my store’s use and one for my personal use. Your method worked for the first one, but when I went to do my personal iPod I couldnt get it to update to only the song I’ve selected for the the smart playlist. You said change it to “manually update” and then to “update only selected playlists”. I changed it to manually update and now I can’t update only selected playlists! I don’t really know what to do now…. help?
…
Barbara Landess on October 4th, 2009 at 6:38 am
Hi everyone. I have just downloaded ipod 3.1 software for my ipod touch. Can I also use it for my daughters ipod touch or do I have to buy it and download it again? We use the same computer but have different accounts. Thanks in advance!
javier on October 31st, 2009 at 10:31 am
how do i transfer songs from one ipod touch to another ipod touch without deleting anything
Ipod1 on November 9th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Just look at:
http://www.ipodrobot.com/blog/how-to-managing-multiple-ipods-in-one-computer.htm
Very userfriendly!
Only additional step I have added is to have my own playlist automatically synchronised:
Connect the iPod to the PC. When you plug in that iPod and the device name appears in the left hand column, right click on device name and change it to “Manually Update” and then change it to “Update only selected playlists”
Ipod1 on November 9th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Above is just relating to install 2 ipods on 1 computer with different music.